This is part of a series of Hip Life Throwbacks. Enjoy!!

Praye - Jacket

With UY Scuti, Nigerian rapper Olamide continues his evolutionary cycle on his eleventh studio album. 

“Need for Speed”
“‘Need for Speed’ talks about the ups and downs of every typical ghetto kid, but I used Lagos as a point of reference. When I was younger I used to walk to school and whenever it was raining, cars would splash water on my brother and me. I used to say, ‘I can’t wait to be rich, and hopefully, I don’t end up like those people.’ I used to think I would never, but I’ve done such things unknowingly several times since I became rich, too. Life is like a sports car, and there’s no way you’ll buy a sports car and not want to speed.”

“Jailer” (feat. Jaywillz)
“‘Jailer’ was just vibes and feel-good music from me and Jaywillz. He came up with this hook, then we started cooking up the chorus and the beat as well. We were just trying different sounds from around the world as I chopped verses up. I’m taking a bit of everything and just mixing it up with my Afrobeats sounds nowadays.”

“Rock”
“There are too many problems out there, so that’s what we do now: have fun, turn up, and listen to good music. It’s majorly about telling someone you love, ‘Hey, you don’t even need to do too much for me to keep being with you.’ Sometimes I think society, in general, puts too much pressure on how a lady should look—dress like this, move like that, do this and that for your man. And the men, what do we tell them to do?”

“Julie”
“This song is me telling my woman that I know I’m crazy and not 100% perfect, but the kind of love I get from her is so amazing I’m willing to surrender everything. I wanted a mixture of that Caribbean feels just to take it away from the regular Afrobeats vibe.”

“Rough Up” (feat. Layydoe)
“This is a small bashment vibe, you know? Just true to the dancehall vibe. While I was working on this record, I went for a show somewhere outside Lagos. I was bored on the road trip, and while searching for Chaka Demus, I stumbled on a ’90s dancehall playlist. The moment I heard all those sounds, I was like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna try something like this on my project.’ I also knew someone that could actually kill this. I’ve always known Layydo, and she was actually meant to be on Carpe Diem with me. I called her up to come and do justice to the song, and she did.”

“Want” (feat. Fave)
“Fave is my G! I stumbled on her music when my wife sent me a link to a song of hers last year. I checked her out and thought she was dope. Right now, we’re family and I can’t wait for the whole world to listen to her and see all she’s got. We just linked up and recorded a series of songs, and ‘Want’ is just chilled R&B vibes—some laidback music.”

“PonPon” (feat. Fave)
“This has a whole sensual vibe to it and we’re just setting the mood right like the previous song. I just thought we needed to flip it a little bit at this point, slow the run and keep it smooth. Just spice it up with something different.”

“Cup of Tea”
“This is a proper, proper Naija thing. There’s a lot of traditional Nigerian vibes in it, with the percussion and all. ‘Sho’ is just saying, ‘I’m gonna look after that...I got you’ in Yoruba. While coming up, I was a rap artist, and I grew up thinking you always needed an R&B singer to do your chorus. It was very difficult to get one while coming up, so I was like, ‘I’m not gonna wait on anybody anymore.’ I started developing that part of me, and I have just kept working on my hooks. I’m not 100% where I want to be yet, but I guess it’s paying off so far.”

Julie

SongCloud

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